By Rebecca Blum Emami
In my last article, I wrote about why intermediaries matter. The leverage they create, the connections they build, and the infrastructure they provide so frontline organizations can succeed.
This time I want to talk directly to the people who are responsible for making the fundraising case for these organizations. The CDOs, CEOs, and major gift officers who sit across the table from donors and have to make the “invisible” work visible.
Fundraising for an Intermediary is Different
Fundraising for an intermediary is not just asking for money. It is teaching donors to see value they have never been asked to fund before. One of the most important parts of that work is donor education. Many donors have never been asked to support systems change, capacity building, or infrastructure. They know how to fund a program or a direct service. They can picture a classroom, a clinic, a shelter. But they may not understand why they should fund the bridge that connects those services, strengthens them, and helps them reach more people.
How to Educate Without Losing Them
The way you explain this matters. Start where they are by connecting to something they already understand, then layer in the role your organization plays in making that possible. Use concrete examples from your partners, such as the time your team handled compliance and reporting so a nonprofit could launch a program faster and serve more people. Avoid jargon and make the language clear:
- Capacity building becomes “making sure the people doing the work have what they need to succeed”
- Field coordination becomes “helping everyone pull in the same direction”
- Donor education is not a separate step. It is the sales process
Balancing Logic and Emotion
Making the case requires both. You need to talk about the scale, efficiency, leverage, and systems impact, but you also need to share a human story from the field. Too often, intermediaries focus only on the numbers, reach, and policy wins, forgetting to make the donor feel something. Others share only partner stories without showing the multiplier effect, which can make you sound like a pass-through. You are not a pass-through. You are the accelerator. Always connect the big picture to the individual impact and be explicit about the cost of not funding the infrastructure, whether that is missed opportunities, slower responses, or smaller reach.
Finding the Right Donors
Not every donor is the right match for this kind of work, and that is okay. The best prospects tend to be:
- Institutional funders with systems change or capacity-building mandates
- Corporate partners who want scale and efficiency in their giving
- High-net-worth individuals who are curious about how change happens
- Donor collaboratives that already work through regranting or shared impact
You will know you have found the right person when they ask how the field works as much as what your programs do, when they have funded advocacy or infrastructure before, or when they lean in and ask you to talk about efficiency, leverage, and long-term change. Do not be afraid to qualify a donor early before committing months of cultivation.
The Bigger Role You Play
If you lead fundraising for an intermediary, you are not only raising money. You are shaping how the sector understands and funds the infrastructure of change. The right donors are out there. They want to invest in scale, strategy, and systems. They just need you to help them see the bridge, not just the destination. When you do that, you are not only funding your organization. You are funding the capacity of many others to do their best work. And that is the kind of impact no single program can match.